


A Breath Apart

by RisuAlto



Series: Tumblr Ask Prompt Fills [11]
Category: Critical Role (Web Series)
Genre: Gen, Major Character Injury, Paralysis, Spiders, freakin phase spiders man
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-11-18
Updated: 2019-11-18
Packaged: 2021-02-12 16:33:58
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 861
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/21479449
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/RisuAlto/pseuds/RisuAlto
Summary: Nott remembered these creatures, kind of—they’d fought one in the sewers under Zadash, but it was a brief encounter and she was slightly drunk at the time.  It wasn’t this hard before, she thought, but maybe she was just remembering wrong.  Or maybe it had something to do with the fact that instead of one this time, there were now half a dozen of them.
Relationships: Nott & Caleb Widogast
Series: Tumblr Ask Prompt Fills [11]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1547980
Comments: 4
Kudos: 41





	A Breath Apart

**Author's Note:**

> This prompt was, "A helpless look right before they collapse."

Nott remembered these creatures, kind of—they’d fought one in the sewers under Zadash, but it was a brief encounter and she was slightly drunk at the time. It wasn’t this hard before, she thought, but maybe she was just remembering wrong. Or maybe it had something to do with the fact that instead of one this time, there were now half a dozen of them. In Nott’s defense, none of the Nein had any idea that there even _were_ phase spiders in the open planes, much less an entire horde of them; so when Caduceus had tripped over an odd looking egg in one second and the party was completely surrounded in the next, they had no time to prepare or fix their formation—it was just suddenly a fight.

The good thing about everyone being forced into close quarters was that, in general, the spiders didn’t notice a tiny goblin darting about their legs and targeting weak points. The bad thing was that when a spider did notice her, she really couldn’t take a hit. She got lucky the first few times, getting off with only grazes, but such luck couldn’t—and didn’t—hold forever.

She had just tumbled past one of the giant bugs into what should have been a patch of open space when a spurt of blue mist erupted around her. Nott dropped into the grass, resisting the urge to cough the particles away, but it didn’t matter. The spider had seen her, and it proceeded to sink its fangs right into her stomach. Pain blazed outward from the wound and Nott shrieked, hoping at least that it would get the attention of her friends. But the sound tapered off like she had suddenly run out of air as tendrils of _cold_ began to rush through her veins, chasing the fire and leaving her frozen from the inside out.

The mass of venomous blue and icy white hair and legs above her was swirling like runny paint, and the sounds of battle grew fuzzy in the distance. She thought the spider might still have been drooling above her, but it was hard to tell. Nott couldn’t feel anything, let alone move. She was stuck, and her head felt an awful lot like it did when she got well and truly drunk.

Everyone was too far away. She couldn’t hear them anymore. Nott wanted to growl and scream and hiss, but her lungs just wouldn’t listen, and she fell into unconsciousness quietly, so _still_, that it was almost peaceful.

The world came back in layers. Nott smelled smoke first, then felt something warm on her stomach and in one hand. She tried to blink, but the weight of her eyelids might as well have been Yasha’s entire body, so that idea was abandoned. Her lips also wouldn’t move, but the taste of blood had dried on her tongue.

“Nott?” That was Caleb. He was close by, she could tell, but she just couldn’t move towards him.

“Caduceus, why isn’t it working?” The shrill demand was Jester’s, thick with concern, and Nott felt her chest warm a little upon realizing that everyone was still there.

A second weight joined the one on her stomach. “I dunno,” rumbled Caduceus’s voice from her other side. “She’s healing—see there, the bite mark’s almost gone—but I think she’s still poisoned.”

“Can you fix her? Cure the poison?” asked Caleb, and Nott felt her hand move, lifted by someone else.

Someone hummed in the negative. “I’m all out of magic,” said Caduceus.

“If I take a rest, I might be able to ask the Traveler to give me that spell,” said Jester, “but I can’t do anything right now.”

“It should wear off before you have to do that,” Caduceus assured her, and Nott felt simultaneously relieved and impatient. If whatever had happened would wear off on its own, then it meant she wasn’t going to die, but it also meant she had to wait. Stuck like this. Paralyzed, blind, and dumb. She hated it.

“Caleb, can you stay with her? Fjord needs me and Yasha to lift stuff back onto the cart,” said Jester.

“Oh, I can stay,” Caduceus said gently.

“No, that’s okay. You go,” said Caleb. His voice was soft, as it always was, but firm, and Nott registered a squeeze to her hand. She wanted to smile. “I’ll stay here.”

A minute or so passed quietly and Nott assumed that Jester and Caduceus had moved off to help the others. But, eventually, Caleb spoke again, accent wrapping tight around his words like choking ivy vines. “You scared me, Nott the Brave,” he said. “You weren’t moving, and for a moment there, I thought—” he breathed “—well. It doesn’t matter what I thought because it’s not true. You are alive. But I wasn’t there for you and I’m sorry.”

_It’s better that you were far away,_ Nott wanted to say. She wanted to squeeze his hand back and wrap Caleb in both arms and tell him that it’s okay and pretend that she hadn’t been terrified for her life. But she couldn’t, and only silence answered her boy.


End file.
